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I’ve decided not have ABC Giveaway posts on Thanksgiving or Black Friday, but I will be reposting my 105 Ways to Give a Book list — so come by and do your holiday online shopping with a little help from your MotherReader.I Dream of an Elephant
by Ami Rubinger

Color is the name of the game in this book. Well, color and rhyme. Lively elephants dance through the pages with participatory rhymes like, “Jumping and playing the whole morning through! I dream of an elephant whose color is...” Yeah, just keep yourself from saying “Blue!” in your head. The pages also give a huge hint as to what color is requested, which makes this a better book for toddlers. The one small surprise is how the author will handle the orange elephant, since it is notably hard to work the phrase “door hinge” at the end of a rhyme. The illustrations are cute and colorful, as one might expect for a book about colors, and a fun choice for storytime or a bedtime read.

Okay, this book is a bit of cheat for a letter I storytime, but it was nice to be able to include a book of colors and a book that could also be used for E (for elephant). Also, I’m reviewing the books that I was sent for the Cybils — as opposed to those I borrowed from the library — so that I am able to give them away. With this in mind, I’ll direct you to another title for older kids and maybe adults, and for possible gift-giving, and that is Instructions, by Neil Gaiman. You may have read his poem that offers instructions based on fairy tales — instructions that have meaning in real life. “Touch the wooden gate in the wall you never saw before...” Give this with a book of classic fairy tales. You know what? Let’s stop for a moment before the rest of “The Letter I” for the video, which includes the entire book and the poem as read by Neil Gaiman. You’re welcome.

The waves on the island go up and down...
The crabs on the island crawl back and forth...
The clams on the island will open and shut...
the lobsters on the island go snap, snap, snap...(Hand motions can follow the directions of the song.)

The Rundown

One of the bestselling preschool books of recent times was Walter the Farting Dog. At the same time, the American Library Association named as one of its best books Michael Rosen’s Sad Book, a book in which Mr. Rosen talks about his despair over the death of his son. I believe that, for most of us, what we want lies somewhere between a flatulent canine and overwhelming grief.